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Mike Leigh wanted a little controversy for his new film Vera
Drake. The veteran English writer-director, famous for his
working-class comic melodramas High Hopes and Secrets
& Lies, felt a need to stir things up.

But there hasn't been that much controversy over Vera
Drake, a film about a sweet, middle-aged, working-class woman
who gives abortions on the side.

The reviews have been rapturous - "stunning and compassionate,"
raved Entertainment Weekly. Even Vatican Radio gave it the
thumbs up.

So Leigh, 61, has to settle for praise when he wanted headlines,
or maybe picket lines. We caught up with him as he was regrouping
in New York.

Question: "Any thought at all beyond the shores of Britain when
you contemplated taking this on as subject matter?"

Mike Leigh: "When we decided to make the film, a few years ago,
we calculated that it would be ready to be screened in the States
just before your presidential election.

"It seemed important to get this subject out there, on people's
minds. And we did. Didn't make much difference, unfortunately.

"Obviously, what I was going for here was to remind people of
the history they've forgotten - what the world was like when
religious leaders made decisions about things like this, and
government went along with it."

Q: "To fans of your work, the working-class milieu of Vera
Drake feels like Mike Leigh. But the overt focus on a
politically controversial subject seems like a departure."

Leigh: "It's true, for me to make a movie for people to debate
and discuss, a controversial subject, perhaps it is a departure for
me. But my films have always had a political subtext, haven't
they?

"It's clear what I'm implicitly saying in most of my films,
though I like to think I keep the message tucked away. Am I still
making a statement about class? Yes.

"The rules are different for the very rich than they are for the
rest of us. It's always been the case.

"This movie reminds us how abortion never really affected the
lives of the wealthy and the powerful. They were always able to get
them, even when they were illegal and unavailable to everyone
else.

"The things I want this movie to say are simple, two simple
facts:

"No.1, if abortion is outlawed, we'll go back to a situation
where non-medical amateurs will perform them, just as they did
before it became legal.

"And No.2, there will always be abortions because there will
always be unwanted pregnancies.

Q: "Were you worried that maybe Vera (Imelda Staunton) is just a
little too good? She practically wears a halo."

Leigh: "Some people have criticised Vera as a character who is
too angelic. But I just think she's one of those people, and they
do exist, who are just naturally helpful.

"In this ordinary, straightforward way, she just wants to make
other people's lives easier. She's a good person. Simple as
that."

Q: "In film circles, you're known for your love of the working
class, which you came from, and for your technique, which is to
cast actors and create the story you want to tell, with them,
during the process of rehearsal. The first seems to be the case
here, 1950s working-class Britain.

"Were you able to do things the way you always have,
improvising, having this very specific story you wanted to
tell?"

Leigh: "I don't think consciously of that. But I am naturally
drawn to things that deal with the lives of ordinary people,
really. Working people. It's where I come from, who I am. I do deal
with other segments of society in my films, as in Topsy
Turvy (about the operetta composers Gilbert and Sullivan), and
as I do in Vera Drake. "But I don't really see myself, in an
anthropological sense, interested in the working class.

"My technique has essentially remained the same, though it has
evolved a bit over the years. It's more sophisticated.

"If the actors are making our story up, and they are, and the
film is a period piece, like Topsy Turvy or Vera
Drake, the actors have to go off and research that period, how
people acted, what they said, how they thought.

"Other than that, the way that I conduct these operations is
still [to] round up the actors and we make it up."